New Mexico bans schools from shaming kids who can't pay for lunch

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New Mexico has passed a first-of-its-kind piece of legislation banning so-called "lunch-shaming." Titled the Hunger-Free Students' Bill of Rights, it ensures that kids are served proper meals — even if their parents haven't paid the school meal fees.

There have been many reports of kids around the U.S. being singled out or deprived of hot lunches for not having the necessary funds. Back in September, As it Happens spoke with a cafeteria worker who said she quit her job after she was ordered to refuse students a hot meal if they didn't have lunch money.

• School cafeteria worker quits after she's ordered to take food from kids who can't pay

State Senator Michael Padilla introduced the new legislation in New Mexico. Here's part of his conversation with host Carol Off.  

CAROL OFF: Senator Padilla, what does this new piece of legislation change about school lunches in your state?

MICHAEL PADILLA: Well, today, children are treated very differently in the lunch room ... where one kid might be served a really warm, wholesome, complete meal and the other child would be served a piece of bread with maybe a piece of cheese on it simply because they have some sort of debt with the lunchroom. 

This legislation actually is going to really re-frame the focus of the school lunch program. One is it's going to take the focus for the child off of their stomach and place it on their studies … It will remove the stigmatising of these kids in terms of how they're treated with their peer groups. And then, the school is going to have their expectations reset by encouraging them through this legislation — or actually requiring them — to seek out other forms for low-income and no-income … So, this is just something that's going to move New Mexico forward. We've had years of up to 46 per cent drop out rate from K through 12. We've got to do something to turn the ship of our economy around by producing a good workforce.  

CO: This has been referred to as "lunch-shaming." Can you give us examples of what lunch-shaming does and is?

Padilla

MP: Well, I grew up in foster homes … I did work my way up to the state senate. I'm the majority whip there. I'm 44 now. And I can tell you from the time I was a child to now, I hear story after story of a child having, literally, a hot lunch taken out of their hands and thrown away ... I, as an example, had to clean the lunch room, mop the lunch room, put the tables up, take them down. All of that still happens today ... And really at the end of the day, [children] have zero control over whether there's lunchroom debt. If you're six years old, you don't hold a job to be able to pay that lunchroom debt. So, let's take that off of the child, place the responsibility where it belongs, and let's move New Mexico forward.  

CO: You mentioned earlier the dropout rate of kids from kindergarten through high school. Do you think that has a lot to do with the shame of poverty — being centred out in the ways that school lunch programs were doing?

MP: Well, you may be shocked or surprised to hear, but New Mexico is 49th in terms of the Annie E. Casey Foundation study of child well-being. There are a lot of things that go into that study and one of them is food security and nutrition security and all of those things. If the child is coming to school and not receiving nourishment in the middle of the day, the afternoon is pretty much a waste of time. They're thinking about their stomach, they're paying attention to that, rather than their studies. It's my belief that we break these things down in tangible, real actions we can take here. By removing that hunger in their stomach, ideally, I'm expecting that child now to focus on their studies. So, I think that's going to lend itself to success — in terms of grade performance, graduation, all of those things.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. To hear more of our interview with Senator Michael Padilla, listen to the full audio above.